Dust Storms off North Africa Coast

Streamers of dust flow out over the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea from the northern shores of Africa's vast Sahara Desert. On November 14, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of rippling dust being swept northeastward across Libya (center) and Tunisia (top left). The winds that whipped up this dust may be part of a large weather system that brought severe storms—including gale force winds—to parts of Croatia, Italy, and Algeria. The dust plumes persisted for several days in mid-November.
Credit: Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center